Sheriff's Office receives free drone for law enforcement

Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Levorchick was presented with a complimentary drone, a GoPro Karma, fitted for law enforcement use by Intrensic CEO Kevin Mullins, who provides the department with its fleet of GoPro body-worn cameras.(Photo: Jon Stinchcomb/News Herald)Buy Photo

PORT CLINTON - Along with the extra set of eyes Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office road deputies now have with their body-worn cameras, there will soon be an eye in the sky as well with the addition of a drone to the department’s fleet.

On Thursday, Intrensic LLC presented the sheriff’s office with a free drone outfitted for law enforcement use.

Intrensic, a software company based in San Mateo, California, has contracted with the sheriff’s office to provide a fleet of body-worn GoPro video cameras and has been working with the department to continually improve its products.

As a way of “giving back” to the department for the useful feedback provided, Intrensic CEO Kevin Mullins offered the drone to the sheriff’s office at no cost.

“Intrensic has worked with us so well, it’s incredible,” Sheriff Steve Levorchick said.

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The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office was presented with a complimentary drone, a GoPro Karma, fitted for law enforcement use by Intrensic, who provides the department with their fleet of GoPro body-worn cameras.(Photo: Jon Stinchcomb/News Herald)

After reviewing many various vendors of law enforcement body cameras, Levorchick opted to go with Intrensic and GoPro, saying both the cameras and software were “unmatched.”

The software handles unlimited digital storage for the video, which can be uploaded directly from a deputy’s cruiser, as well as a secure cloud-based platform that can be accessed remotely, such as with a smartphone.

Beginning in March of this year, the sheriff’s office fully implemented the GoPro body cameras as a mandatory piece of equipment for all patrol deputies, civil deputies and administration.

Since that time, the department has uploaded more than 10,000 videos, Levorchick said Thursday.

The sheriff said recently retired former Captain Scott Frank spent many hours working with Intrensic, which was open to developing new programs and updating existing ones, to ensure the best possible data storage and integration of information.

“The tremendous input they’ve given us we’ve been able to utilize,” Mullins said. “We’ve been able to take that information and change development pieces and work on engineering the software. They help to make our product better.”

While the use of body cameras currently has only a 30 percent saturation among law enforcement agencies across the country, according to Mullins, he said that is likely to increase to 80 percent over the next few years, viewing it as part of the future of law enforcement.

Similarly, Mullins said Intrensic views drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), as the future for law enforcement as well.

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Matt Dugas, of Intrensic, provider of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office's body-worn cameras, syncs the department's new drone, a GoPro Karma, to the controller.(Photo: Jon Stinchcomb/News Herald)

The drone given to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office was a GoPro Karma, the company’s latest UAV recently redesigned and released earlier this year.

Being a GoPro product, the drone is already fully compatible the department’s GoPro HERO5 Black cameras and Instrensic’s cloud-based platform. The basic model sells for around $800, not including camera, at most retail outlets.

“I’m sort of speechless,” Levorchick said after receiving the drone. “This enables us to better serve our community.”

Levorchick noted that Ottawa County has more boats and marinas than any other county in Ohio and believes the drone will be an invaluable tool in the event of a missing person.

“This enables us to search that shoreline so much more thoroughly, so much quicker and better use our resources,” he said. “That’s just one of the many, many applications that we can utilize this equipment.”

Because piloting the drone requires training and a license from the Federal Aviation Administration, Levorchick could not estimate when it will be available to use in the field, but plans to make it as soon as possible.

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The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office was presented with a complimentary drone, a GoPro Karma, fitted for law enforcement use by Intrensic, who provides the department with their fleet of GoPro body-worn cameras.(Photo: Jon Stinchcomb/News Herald)